Letters to The Daily Telegraph

Sir - The law enabling empty dwellings to be seized and stripped by local councils would cause considerable difficulties for those working in the oil and gas industry.

People who work as oil and gas engineers in foreign places usually have six-month contracts and do need to leave their stuff somewhere safe, rather than rent the house to tenants.

And anyone working in overseas aid would not only worry about burglars but would come back to find the local council had stolen the bricks and mortar.

Six months just isn't a reasonable length of time for a property to be designated as empty.

Sue Doughty, Twyford, Berks

Sir - Labour is turning the dream of owning a home into an utter nightmare.

Having read the new rules published by the Government yesterday, I find the words Crichel Down spring to mind.

With few safeguards, and no right of appeal, this Government disproves yet again the old axiom: "A man's house is his castle."

T. J. Perry, Bracknell, Berks

Sir - From June 2007, anyone wanting to sell their home must by law have a Home Information Pack before they can start to advertise it for sale (or, we assume, even show potential buyers around it).

The cost will be at least £600, and possibly more than £1,000. No one yet knows. The home inspectors are not necessarily already qualified surveyors, but will be appointed by a Government quango.

The survey reports will not contain a valuation, so a buyer wanting a mortgage will need that to be made and, I believe, yet another survey. The buyer will also have to have the professional advice of a solicitor to check through all the paperwork presented by the vendor.

The owner must pay for a Home Information Pack that in effect actually devalues the property by pointing out all the faults. Those faults will be picked up by a purchaser, who will send around an endless number of builders, electricians, plumbers, wood treatment specialists, etc. Having gained several estimates, he will go to the seller with the highest quotations in order to negotiate the house price down.

How is this better than the current situation, when you can now always have a contract prepared to save time?

And how many people are absolutely 100 per cent sure they want to move? If circumstances change, you will not get back that £1,000 plus VAT.

I have campaigned against the Sellers' Information Pack, now named the Home Information Pack, ever since Labour announced it. At that time, it seemed to be supported by the Conservatives.

Anyone wanting to sell their property should put it on the market now and hope to sell before next summer.

Richard Grant, Ringwood, Hants

Anti-Christian law

Sir - We write as pastors on behalf of tens of thousands of black British Christians. Many members of our congregations in London left their home countries to come to England to experience the freedom of living according to their Christian beliefs in a Christian democratic country.

But increasingly the Labour Government is discriminating against Christians in order to appease minority groups. From the Government's behaviour, it seems that those minority groups have disproportionate access to the ears of politicians and use that access to promote views and values that are contrary to the views and values which have been at the centre of protecting and promoting British families, schools and local communities for centuries.

The latest discrimination against Christians is the new law called the Sexual Orientation Regulations, said to combat the problem of homophobia in Britain. It alarms us that the Government's only evidence for a problem actually existing is "accounts in national newspapers".

The regulations force Christians in churches, businesses, charities and informal associations to accept and even promote the idea that homosexuality is equal to heterosexuality.

For the sake of clarity, this is not what the Bible teaches and it is not what we believe to be the truth. In our view, these regulations are an affront to our freedom to be Christians.

If the Government thinks that we will accept this law lying down, they are mistaken. This sort of Christianophobia from the Government is no longer acceptable.

Sir - It is disingenuous of the Audit Commission to blame NHS managers for shortcomings in the service (News, July 11). The Government, which pays the Audit Commission, has set targets that have no medical relevance and issues daily and frequently contradictory diktats that make a manager's life impossible.

I am, as a senior hospital doctor, in the distinctly unusual situation of defending my administrative colleagues.

David Nunn, London SE1

Road to Stonehenge

Sir - Thousands of people see and love Stonehenge every time they drive past. The view from the A303 going west is unbeatable - much better than being closer to the stones (Letters, July 11).

Building the short bored tunnel would deprive thousands of this pleasure, destroy much of Stonehenge's surrounding archaeology, and cost millions of the taxpayers' money.

Kate Mortimer, Okehampton, Devon

Turn historic court into a museum

Sir - Senior District Judge Timothy Workman's comment (News, July 12) on Bow Street Magistrates' Court being turned into yet another London hotel said it all: "Unfortunately there is no value to be placed on history and heritage."

London has no public police museum nor legal museum. What an opportunity to establish one. And what a shame for this building to be turned into yet another hotel. As a museum, the court building could pay for its upkeep in the same way that Dr Johnson's house and the handful of other London landmarks that remain earn their keep.

London's biggest industry is tourism. How ironic that a piece of history is to be turned into a hotel for those who come to view that history.

Phil Jones, London W11

Engineers needed for nuclear power

Sir - The British Government is in favour of more nuclear power stations, but its energy review skates over where to find the large number of engineers necessary to build, operate and decommission them (News, July 12).

As the chief executive officer for EPCglobal, which is a specialist engineer staffing company, I know that our small pool of home-grown talent is mainly tied up with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the output of suitably qualified graduates from universities has been dwindling for years. As a result, more than 70 per cent of companies in the nuclear industry already have skills gaps, according to the sector skills council, Cogent.

One solution is to look overseas, but Britain stands to lose as much talent as it recruits as a result of America loosening rules concerned with the recruitment of foreign engineers. Only by investing in long-term initiatives to foster home-grown talent can the Government hope to accomplish its nuclear goals affordably, even if this means taking longer to roll out new stations.

Tobias Read, London W6

Sir - Your leading article and reports on the energy review refer to the reform of planning laws to get a rapid go-ahead on energy development proposals. One way of speeding up decisions about onshore wind energy proposals would be to block all those where average wind speeds at a turbine hub height of 80 metres are below 8.5 metres per second. This means automatically blocking any proposal where, in open landscapes, average wind speeds are below 6.25 metres per second at 10 metres above ground level.

In one swift move, the more dubious proposals would be removed, leaving the focus on those schemes likely to be more technically and economically sound.

Michael Jefferson, Melchbourne, Beds

Sir - The Department of Trade and Industry is misleading the public in claiming that existing wind farms comprising 1,500 turbines can power 900,000 homes. By "power", of course, they mean electricity, which is in fact only one fifth of the energy used in the home. The rest is primarily gas and oil. These turbines produce no more than a fifth of one per cent of the nation's energy consumption and not enough energy for the number of new houses being built each year in Britain.

If the Government intends to produce five per cent of energy from wind power, where is it going to put the other 30,000 turbines and how is it going to install an additional 1,000 turbines every year to keep up with new house-building?

S. J. G. Davies, Catbrook, Monmouthshire

Unmasking hoodies

Sir - I "dehooded" a young hoodie who I caught with her friends rampaging on my bungalow roof, while my 90-year-old husband lay dying beneath. They were unaware of this and remorseful when told.

The terrified child was about 13 years old and said they were all bored stiff. Since then, some splendid local women have formed a group to provide chores and pocket money for the kids, and their behaviour has been transformed, to the relief of all in our neighbourhood.

Could this be what David Cameron is getting at?

Paula Atkins, Pulborough, W Sussex

Mainstream music

Sir - As a music teacher for 20 years, with experience of working in inner-city comprehensives, the private sector and a grammar school, I can strongly endorse much of (Arts, July 12).

Recently, I attended a presentation by the Arts Council England. In the slide show and videos representing work that the Arts Council valued, virtually every image and example that merited high praise was from an ethnic minority musical tradition or from deprived urban youth. The music included some well-sung Jewish folk songs and some Bhangra dance and the event was hosted by a rap artist performance poet.

Nowhere was there the slightest indication that the Arts Council values the mainstream Western classical tradition. Indeed, one suspects that it regards it as peripheral to the experience of children and is politically embarrassed by it.

However, I have found that, in my own school, with girl bands, plenty of Indian dance and curriculum courses that I have set up on African drumming and the development of pop, it is still the Western classical tradition and jazz that stretch the pupils' mental and physical skills, give them a depth of emotional experience beyond the superficiality of popular culture, and help to make them better human beings.

Paul Mitchell, London SW1

Parsonage pleasures

Sir - I was one of four children raised in cold and costly-to-run parsonages in the north of England and remember my several homes with nothing but affection.

For us as a family, we had large rooms upstairs and downstairs, sometimes a nursery, more than one bathroom and plenty of extra room for guests and children's parties. Our gardens were large and constantly in use by us and friends.

For the parishioners, the parsonage was easily recognisable and accessibly near the church. Far from being "invaded by them" for meetings, church groups and garden parties, my parents felt privileged to offer them the facilities we enjoyed and felt that home and garden were part and parcel of their ministry.

As kids, we came into contact with people many and varied - from tramps to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Parsonage life appears not to have tainted us, as our subsequent careers in the police, social work and nursing testify.

In the summer of 1981, while a medical student, I was hitchhiking in Dorset with a girlfriend. We were given a lift by a gentleman in his eighties, who told us that he was called Raymond Bacon and that his late wife had been a maid for the Hardys.

He recounted the story of the disappearance of the heart from the kitchen table, where it had been left by the doctor who had removed it. It was widely assumed (without proof) that the cat was guilty. He said that a heart was symbolically buried in Hardy's grave in Dorset, but that it probably wasn't a human one.